Vaccine Proponents Would Be Wise To Remember A Key Doctrine Of Medical Ethics: ‘Informed Consent’ – Wirepoints

By: Mark Glennon*

As if on cue, many COVID vaccine proponents from President Biden on down to Illinois columnists have resorted over the past week to insults to encourage vaccination.

That won’t work.

They would do their side and everybody else a favor if they focused, instead, on a bedrock principle of medical ethics and law in America and most of the world – one that’s been largely ignored: informed consent.

“Informed consent to medical treatment is fundamental in both ethics and law,” says the American Medical Association’s Code of Ethics. “Patients have the right to receive information and ask questions about recommended treatments so that they can make well-considered decisions about care.”

The doctrine is well established in America as a legal matter as well. Everyone of sufficient age and soundness of mind has the right to decide what is to be done to his or her body, even when survival is implicated.

In Australia, they put it this way: “Healthcare is underpinned by the principle of ‘autonomy’; the right of individuals to make their own decisions about what is done with their bodies. Any medical treatment (including vaccination) in the absence of properly informed consent is, at law, a trespass and can attract civil and criminal liability.”

A recent Wall Street Journal column by a medical ethicist and a law prof put the matter in broader international terms:

Consider the analogy of nontherapeutic research, from which the research subject doesn’t stand to benefit directly. The central canon of medical ethics in this situation is the free and informed consent of the research subject, as articulated in the Nuremberg Code and the Helsinki Declaration. Informed consent is likewise required for medical decisions in all adults of sound mind. This is arguably the most deeply rooted doctrine in contemporary medical ethics.

Imposing legal liability is not the point here, however.

Instead, the point is that (1) the common sense behind the concept of informed consent should be central in a broad way to the national debate about vaccines and masking, and (2) advocates of those measures would be more persuasive and useful if they made their case from that perspective, and do so honestly.

Think about the two concepts incorporated in the term “informed consent.”

First, consent must be informed. That means providing the public with information and data that are honest, balanced and complete. That’s hardly what America has gotten from most of its public officials, medical experts, media and tech platforms.

That information has ranged from one-sided to politicized to incomplete to censored to pure quackery. Anybody making a serious effort to sort out different versions of the “science” of COVID, as we have at Wirepoints, has been pulling their hair out. Possibilities are treated as probabilities. Studies contradicting other studies are ignored. Medical professionals state speculative opinions as facts certain. Even finding some of the sources linked here required using Bing instead of Google because Google suppresses certain viewpoints.

Among countless examples, the World Health Organization was a major initial offender, making the ridiculous claim that fatality rates exceeded 5%. It has flip-flopped on multiple issues but YouTube nevertheless said it would censor anything conflicting with WHO positions. President Trump’s press conferences on COVID were buffoonishly incoherent and contradictory. The CDC routinely changes key data on its website without explanation. Anthony Fauci has admitted he initially lied about masks, allegedly to serve what he saw as a higher purpose. And both President Biden and Vice President Harris were among the earliest casting severe doubts on the vaccine.

And the most obvious questions go unanswered. This week, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked why “people who have had the vaccine need to now wear masks the same as people who have not had it?”

Because-we-say-so, she answered in effect: “Because the public health leaders in our administration have made the determination based on data that that is a way to make sure they are protected, their loved ones are protected, and that’s an extra step given the transmissibility of the virus.”

Consent in those circumstances cannot be said to be “informed,” only confused or simply wrong. It should be no surprise that many Americans have either thrown their hands up in frustration or concluded that most of what they are told is crap.

And what about the second word in “informed consent”? Biden has previously said he did not believe that COVID-19 vaccines should be mandatory for anyone. He is backtracking on that now by mandating the vaccine for federal workers. However, that mandate triggered immediate opposition from large parts of the federal workforce and raises a host of legal problems.

A particularly two-faced betrayal of the consent requirement came this week from Gov. J.B. Pritzker. In announcing this week that Illinois would go along with CDC guidelines on masks, his office emphasized that this was “not a mask mandate.” But then he said this directly: “School districts are going to be potentially held liable if they don’t live up to the standards set by the CDC and the state, which we have set, and that is a recommendation, particularly a strong recommendation.” So, it’s not a mandate but you’ll get sued if you don’t comply.

Instead of honoring the principle of informed consent, vaccine proponents are now resorting to insults.

“If you’re not vaccinated, you’re not nearly as smart as I thought you were,” said Biden this week. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is a “moron” for his opposition to wearing masks in the House, said Speaker Nancy Pelosi this week. Those who reject vaccines and masks are “insane,” wrote Steve Chapman in the Chicago Tribune yesterday. Vaccine hesitant people are “utterly stupid,” wrote Phil Kadner in the Chicago Sun-Times. “It is the stuff of science fiction. It is mystifying,” he wrote.

Good luck with that.

It’s particularly odd to see those insults flying when African-Americans are the most vaccine-hesitant. They are quite familiar with the Tuskegee vaccination experiments on blacks so it should be no surprise that they are particularly hesitant.

A bit of wisdom on how to better talk about vaccines came this week from the New York Times, of all places. “Commanding, advising, lecturing and shaming — not only don’t work but also often backfire,” wrote two professors who specialize in communicating medical advice.

“The difference between people who eagerly want the Covid-19 vaccine and people who are hesitant is not as great as it may seem,” they said. Yes, there are some with what can only be called crazy views who oppose the vaccine, including an alarmingly large number who think there’s a microchip embedded in vaccines. But, as those authors wrote, “most vaccine holdouts are not anti-vaxxers or conspiracy theorists.”

My family and I have all gotten vaccinated. I’m not an anti-vaxxer. I don’t mind hearing from vaccine proponents. But is too much to ask that they recognize they must base their case on winning the informed consent of doubters?

If they tried to make that case respecting those who have already been infected, they’d lose. Studies now consistently show that those with prior infections have natural immunity at least as robust as the vaccinated. It’s entirely reasonable for them to skip the vaccine or at least wait for further learning or new treatments. They comprise probably half of the unvaccinated, yet their immunity is among the topics consistently suppressed or ignored, and the CDC has changed key data on that without any good explanation.

As for the remainder of the unvaccinated, misinformed consent doesn’t cut it. Informed consent won’t be legitimately earned unless the medical and government establishment recognizes that it, too has been a regular source of misinformation, which national columnist Bred Stephens was the latest to document.

“The credibility of public-health experts depends,” he wrote, “on the understanding that the job of informing the public means offering the whole truth, uncertainties included, rather than offering Noble Lies in the service of whatever they think the public needs to hear…Physician, heal thyself.”

UPDATE 7/30/21: Even the left is starting to call out the establishment’s lies on COVID. Slate ticks off their list here.

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.

53 Comments
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Susan
2 years ago

It is time to invoke the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Accommodations must be made for alternative provision systems to those who cannot or will not be vaccinated and are now locked out of jobs, transportation systems (which they are taxed to support), and other public utilities of communication which prevent their sharing of data.

According to those empowered to determine policy, those who will not be vaccinated are imbeciles or sociopathic, both of which qualify as disabilities.

Matilda
2 years ago

Here’s some comprehensive rational scientific data on Covid. We need to learn how to treat and live with it.
https://swprs.org/covid-vaccines-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/?amp&__twitter_impression=true

Fed up neighbor
2 years ago
Reply to  Matilda

Exactly, someone finally see’s the picture, bravo to you, please call Washington and Springfield.

Thee Jabroni
2 years ago

has anyone watched the local news in the last year….coming up next on channel 5 news,covid,covid,covid,covid,and after our commercial break,were gonna talk about covid,after Todd gives us Chicago sports,mooore covid!

Dr Nemo
2 years ago

Part of obtaining informed consent involves explaining the consequences of not accepting the treatment or vaccine. It can be easy to lose sight of those consequences, particularly if you overestimate the risk of the treatment or vaccine and underestimate the risk of declining the treatment or vaccine. Fauci’s famous dissembling and the mass media hyping of vaccine risks and side-effects have made it extremely difficult for the average lay person to assess the risk/benefit balance in this case. For those of us watching unvaccinated people continue to suffer death and disability from Covid 19 disease, knowing death or disability were… Read more »

Carl
2 years ago
Reply to  Dr Nemo

After a thorough and balanced discussion, some people decide for themselves an avenue which does not make sense to most others. That’s fine. When people refuse what seems to be a reasonable course of action, there are two groups. One is a hard-core group (minority of this minority) that will actually become even more entrenched in their beliefs. That’s fine. The other group though (majority of the minority) is different. The hesitant group may be influenced both ways and that’s when a constructive process for an informed consent can be achieved. It can be done respectfully and can be a… Read more »

Dr Nemo
2 years ago
Reply to  Carl

Quite so. One of the greatest problems in dealing with Covid as an individual treatment problem or as a public health problem. has been lack of knowledge due to its novelty, its unique clinical properties in terms of its ability to cause a cascade of complications in multiple organ systems over time, and lack of official candor about the limits of what little accurate knowledge we do have. When this first arrived in hospitals in early 2020 we didn’t know what it was. People came into hospital and just got worse and worse no matter what we did. In March… Read more »

Fauci Fraud
2 years ago
Reply to  Dr Nemo

And then when it became obvious how to treat it, hospitals systems across the country refused to use those safe, effective, and inexpensive treatments. Physicians were ostracized from the medical establishment for daring the want to treat patients with Hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, and vitamin D. The medical establishment aligned with the government payers to force a solution on American society.

Get off your high horse, Doc and own up to being part of the problem and anything but the solution.

Manfred Downstate
2 years ago
Reply to  Carl

“The hesitant group may be influenced both ways and that’s when a constructive process for an informed consent can be achieved.” Well, yes, for the medico who has the time, it may well be that those in the “hesitant group” can be manipulated into consent.

Carl
2 years ago

Yes, ‘sharing’ information comes with the risk of manipulation. Yet, in our daily lives, the decision-making process is often linked to an outsourcing process based on trust. There seems to be a constant amount of overall trust going around and the amount of trust allocated to tribal thinking tends to remove trust from other sources. This is especially true in our increasingly polarized environment. i realize that this is good for website user loyalty but what if your tribe is wrong? What is the price to pay, outside of growing cognitive dissonance, when espousing conclusions which are very likely to… Read more »

Manfred Downstate
2 years ago
Reply to  Carl

“An interesting aspect is that there is a natural tendency for those focusing on tribal sources to then favor a more totalitarian-type of leadership in order to state the ‘truth.'” I’m not entirely sure what you mean by “tribal sources,” but I agree with the points laid out by Mark Glennon in this WirePoints post and his related 08/01/21 post. From what I’m seeing, if anyone has the totalitarian “bug” with regard to Covid, it’s the CDC, President Biden and the Administration, Governor J.B. and advisor Enzike, Mayor Lightfoot and advisor Arwady, the teachers’ unions, and the “public health” bureaucracy… Read more »

Carl
2 years ago

Tribal thinking is when someone adopts an opinion, even if incorrect, not because it makes sense but because that’s the tribe’s position. Maybe you’re naturally immune to this bias but i tend to fall into this trap and i find this mental trap needs personal active work in order to be countered. For example (relevant to this informed consent topic that shows mostly misinformed discontent in the opening text and following comments), evidence that Covid vaccines are effective and safe is overwhelming but someone may be tempted to reject vaccines, not because of the evidence but because of the perception… Read more »

debtsor
2 years ago
Reply to  Carl

Absolutely true. Vaccines clearly work to prevent serious illness (although they may create absolutely insane asymptomatic spread, but that’s another issue). I believe most people should take the vaccine except those for whom this vaccine is risky, children, and those with previous infections and natural immunity.

Carl
2 years ago
Reply to  debtsor

they may create absolutely insane asymptomatic spread”
Please provide real world evidence as your conclusion does not fit with the data (and the virus biology) i know.
For example, how do you explain that, presently, in the US, Covid spread in states and communities (cases, hospitalizations and deaths) is inversely (and strongly) correlated to vaccination rates.

us covid transmission.jpg
Manfred Downstate
2 years ago
Reply to  Carl

Thanks for the further explanation and the Warren Buffet quote. I might add another thought: human beings are individually very smart; in groups not so much.

susan
2 years ago
Reply to  Dr Nemo

Interesting, because I know several med pros who have declined vaccine or else been coerced to take it at risk of job loss. There seems to be self-segregation of people toward those who agree with them. Two ‘sides’ have emerged regarding this issue. However, for medical pros, only one ‘side’ holds control of the critical life-force of funding and licensing. That is, only ‘your’ ‘side’ gets what it wants plus gets to keep jobs and be paid and retain necessary licensure. Perhaps as a critical thinker you might shift toward demanding due process before installing supralegal conditions on those who… Read more »

Fauci Fraud
2 years ago
Reply to  Dr Nemo

“It can be easy to lose sight of those consequences” Actually it’s not easy at all given the non-stop brainwashing of this issue coming from the entire media complex, governments at all levels, and the so-called “medical” establishment. But of course, that’s the intent of the brainwashing. And now the rest of society, or at least those who are paying attention to what’s happening, know that unfortunately the medical profession is a reflection of broader society. Filled with sheep who blindly follow what their colleagues to the left or right are doing in response to this man-made crisis. The fact… Read more »

debtsor
2 years ago
Reply to  Fauci Fraud

The vaccine works, clearly works, with some rare side effects, but it’s not for everyone. One of the downsides seems to be incredible asymptomatic spread, so vaccinated people are sick but have no symptoms and are spreading the disease like crazy. Not sure if that outweighs the risk.

Rural Mom
2 years ago

Another group of people not getting the vaccine is those who are taking medication for other conditions that may be affected by taking a vaccine. With the general unhealth of Americans, this number may be significant. A friend of mine is in this group, so I know it exists.

Rural Mom
2 years ago
Reply to  Rural Mom

Since writing this earlier comment, I have come across several types of people who shouldn’t get the “vaccine”including transplant patients, those on antidepressants, those who have had bad reactions to vaccines or other medication in the past, and those having cancer treatments. These are examples of people whose doctors recommended they not get the Covid “vaccine.”

Wilmette
2 years ago

Incredible amount of red flags in all this. What is hilarious is when you talk to someone who is a vaccine maniac: they demand “send me what articles/resources you read to shape your view” and it’s like “dude, this has been going on for 18 months. If you don’t see it, you have no chance”. It’s not one article or one doctor, it’s red flag after red flag. From masks, that do more harm than good. Lockdowns, that did more harm than good. And now the jab, which many have speculated since last year will do more harm than good.… Read more »

Truth Seeker
2 years ago
Reply to  Wilmette

I am with you on this. Hope more are. We are being played for a nefarious purpose.

Wolfnight
2 years ago

Good article. Thanks Mark for your honesty and candid comment. I am not against vaccination. Quite simply, the COVID vaccines are not FDA approved. They have not been tested long enough to prove they are safe. Now the FDA is corrupted (aka Biogen’s Aduhelm) I fully expect the FDA to approve the vaccines shortly, but again they would not have been tested long enough so I will not be forced to take them. I can also bring some personal experience to bear. A cousin of mine, a nurse, in the UK took the Pandemrix vaccine made by GSK in 2009… Read more »

Truth Seeker
2 years ago

We never needed a vaccine (although this is not a vaccine in the traditional sense of the word) for a virus that has over a 99% survival rate for the vast majority of people. All ages. People took the jab, not because of the virus, but because of tyranny. Many took it to get their freedoms back that should have never been taken away to being with. They will not stop with mandating a jab, they will continue to take more and more freedoms away from people. This was never about a virus – it has always been about money… Read more »

susan
2 years ago

Joe The Patient (informed consent) COVID edition I went to obtain an informed consent and the patient stopped me, they didn’t care because government told them it didn’t matter with anything related to COVID (Pre-COVID informed consent) Joe The Patient I went to obtain an informed consent, And convey to the patient what that meant, I spent the next several moments explaining Concepts I’d learned over eight years of training. Now, Patient Joe was frugal, didn’t live beyond his means, And was dead-set on keeping his own body free of liens, Joe said fine, he’d be glad to sign,  if… Read more »

susan
2 years ago

Such important points made in the above article. Bravo. In regard to CDC squirming, tortuous evasion on question of ‘natural vs. acquired immunity’, here is a cut and paste from CDC website , so readers may draw their own conclusions as to whether CDC even answered their own question: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/hcp/answering-questions.html “Natural immunity versus vaccine immunity Because some people with COVID-19 can have very mild symptoms, some may see natural infection as preferable to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Some people may be concerned that getting a COVID-19 vaccine could make them sicker if they do get COVID-19. Key Points COVID-19 can… Read more »

NoHope4Illinois
2 years ago

It was sheepishly admitted last Nov/ Dec that no more than half of CDC employees had taken the ‘Jab’, or both.

Wilmette
2 years ago

That 50-60% admission was much later: May, 2021

Timothy Hackett
2 years ago

Thank you for calling out the natural immunized community. While stated statistics show roughly 10% have it based upon a documented 30M or so recovered, the CDC in unpublished data imply that number is closer to 80M+. That means closer to 25% – along with roughly 50% vaccinated. The herd immunity goalposts are a joke as they keep moving and neglect this critical subset. All of the lame stream media and the CDC and Fauci completely ignore natural immunity. It’s as if vaccination is the ONLY solution. We can only wonder why. Pharma anyone? Power anyone?

Let's go RED in 2022
2 years ago

Agree – but they only have the power we give them.

Last edited 2 years ago by Let's go RED in 2022
Thee Jabroni
2 years ago

It would be very interesting to see how many politicians have stocks in big pharma.I personally think its a huge conflict of interest that doctors and those that make the ” rules” a.k.a-politicians,are even allowed to have stocks in big pharma.Im really starting to believe this is all more about money than public safety.I smell a whole bunch of rats,starting with dodo bird Fauci,Biden and our good friend JB!!

Marko
2 years ago
Reply to  Thee Jabroni

JB’s trust owns a company involved in PCR testing. How bout them apples?

Thee Jabroni
2 years ago
Reply to  Marko

yea,imagine that

morefandave
2 years ago

The article is spot on. The “experts” have lost me. I wore my mask, though I had my doubts about it, I got vaccinated, and now I’m told (without any evidence to support it0 that I should resume wearing a mask. No. I’m done. If I ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO WITH NO WAY OF AVOIDING IT, I’ll wear a mask, but not otherwise.The “experts”, beginning with Fraudulent Fauci, have a long road ahead of them to restore their credibility, but I see no signs that they are even heading in that direction.

Dale
2 years ago

I’m vaccinated. My wife is not. But now I have to wear a mask because I could “possibly” get reinfected (a “breakthrough infection”) and then infect an unvaccinated person (bearing in mind that most vaccinated people are not the ones concerned about being infected). So, now I have to be inconvenienced out of concern for someone who won’t take a vaccine (which I respect – it’s their choice)! People who are not vaccinated know the risk! Is the same mentality going to apply for the flu shot in the future (by the way – the flu mutates every year too!)?

Sandys
2 years ago
Reply to  Dale

I feel the same way. Personally, I didn’t want to get the vaccine but did so under the assumption that those of us vaccinated would be able to unmask. I do not feel the need to wear a mask to show I “care” for others. I did all that the first year of this virus. I’m done. And had I known my son would have to mask up this year in high school, he would not be vaccinated.

NoHope4Illinois
2 years ago
Reply to  Mark Glennon

There is no way I would put experimental mRNA into a developing child, for which the health risk from Covid19 is very low.

Wilmette
2 years ago

Agree. Not a chance it’s my kids are getting it. I’d rather move to the North Pole or have a gun to my head.

Fauci Fraud
2 years ago
Reply to  Sandys

Neither of you understood what was being injected into you. You didn’t understand how drugs are developed, vaccines are manufactured, and difference between a true “vaccine” and what they injected into you. You likely didn’t know what the Emergency Use Authorization Act is. You were injected with messenger RNA (mRNA) designed to synthetically replicate what your body’s immune system does naturally to fight disease. The synthetic mRNA caused your body to create spike proteins that look like a degraded China virus. The end purpose was to reduce the severity of China virus symptoms if you get it. But at what… Read more »

NoHope4Illinois
2 years ago
Reply to  Fauci Fraud

When Biden stopped nearly any effort on therapeutics I sensed something was up – Our NIAID and NIH appear to be agents for Big Pharma, and Pharma has done well with Covid19 and wants a third Jab for the world.

Fauci Fraud
2 years ago

People have grown somewhat accustomed to seeing their governing institutions corrupted. Particularly if you call IL/Chicago home.

But it will be too horrible for many if not most to see how completely corrupted our national institutions have become including about every corner of the federal bureaucratic apparatus.

Joey Zamboni
2 years ago

Government proclomation:

You are hereby INFORMED that the state has CONSENTED to abridge your constitutional rights & mandate you get vaccinated…

No_4th_Reich
2 years ago

The government has lied at every step of this pandemic. They have provided little evidence that masks don’t work. They haven’t used risk to inform recommendations. They have actively worked against cheap, effective, and safe treatments like Ivermectin, which is as or more effective than current gene therapies that fail to confer immunity but are labeled as vaccines. When has the government said get some exercise? Get out in the sun or take Vitamin D regularly? “12 days to stop the spread”=lie. Herd immunity but far superior natural immunity doesn’t count. These therapies don”t use attenuated viruses, they are designed… Read more »

Waggs
2 years ago
Reply to  No_4th_Reich

Completely agree with the point re: overall health improvement. We are a fat nation. You want me to wear a mask and get a vaccine to protect you? Well then, I’m going to need you to put down the double cheeseburger and XBox and take a walk around the block to protect me. A healthy organism is significantly more able to fight disease than an unhealthy one. So, your unhealthy lifestyle is more of a threat to me than my Covid-recovered, healthy self is to you. But that is NEVER part of the convo.

Rick
2 years ago

Nice article, yes its blame republicans time, yet the stats show that larger percentages of unvaxed are in democratic big city groups, looking at each big-city union and you see 40% avg unvaccinated. Even in big blue city hospital staffs.

NoHope4Illinois
2 years ago

Israel is one of the most heavily vaccinated countries, and of those infected with the Delta variant 80% were vaccinated.

Deaths in America directly related to the vaccines is +12k and climbing, and now they are trying to hide that data.

Experimental vaccine was released for those at high risk based on age and multiple comorbids.

Capitalthoughtcriminal
2 years ago

But according to people in the other thread on this very site, the deaths are “just a rounding error” and the jab is “the only way we can get back to normal.”

I wonder if they’ll realize they’ve been had before or after they’re backed against the wall.

Fed up neighbor
2 years ago

A day is forthcoming we’re patriotic Americans will have to take the law into there own hands before it is to late to turn America around to how it used to be.

Hunter’s Lap Dance
2 years ago

The last 4yrs+ should have made it crystal clear they definitely don’t want you informed and they could care less whether you consent.

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